Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to write. And that would be me. I've moved my journal about my writing life over to LiveJournal http://susanwrites.livejournal.com
This blog will be filled with writing prompts and exercises so we can all write on right now! Please feel free to share your favorites.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Thinking writing thoughts

but not doing a lot of writing. I am still pretty much floating on the air that comes with a sale. This one just feels different. Lots different. Many thanks to so many people who shared in my joy and sent congratulations. And a special thank you to my Live Journal syndication sponsor, Cynthia Lord who not only sent me thanks, but a tiara as well!

Now is the limbo time that I knew was coming while I wait for the revision letter. Here's hoping there's not a lot to do. They want the final manuscript in November so they can bring it out fall 2006.

But I can't turn off my writing brain. I've been working on promotion for Oliver's Must-Do List and thinking about my next book. It's completely different from Hugging the Rock and yet it's not. It's a YA. HTR is a MG. It's from a boy's point of view. HTR is from a girl's point of view. It's about a missing father. HTR is somewhat about a missing mother (but more about the bonds between a father and a daughter.) So it got me thinking about something that comes up every so often in writing conversations. The idea that we write the same story over and over again because of some connection in our own life. My recurrent story in books is a missing parent and a search for love and belonging within the family. No surprise there for me as I grew up without a father, without ever knowing his side of the family, and I have always felt like the square peg in the round hole with my own family. I worry sometimes that each story won't be different enough to stand on its own but so far, so good. I think the bigger worry is that with each book I write, I dig a little deeper at my own pain. But I also work out a lot of my own issues in the course of the writing.

Who am I? I was born on the Cancer/Leo cusp and share a birthday with Ernest Hemingway and Robin Williams.
The similarities don't stop there as I can go from depressed to ecstatic without ever passing go.
I feel scared most of the time though my friends call me brave and I find it easier to believe in my
friends than to belive in my own abilities to make what I want out of my life.

Who am I? A wife, a mother, a daughter, and even, gulp, a grandmother.

Who am I? A writer who never gets tired of playing with words, even when the words are hard to find.
A writer of books for children and articles for grown-ups and many things in-between.